The Truth Can Hurt
by Emerald Embers
Summary: Vincent/Lucrecia, set after the game. Somewhat... unusual take on their relationship.


The Truth Can Hurt  
  
By Emerald Embers  
  
Louise_cmi_vc@hotmail.com  
  
Rated PG  
  
A/N: This basically relies on Lucrecia having not been dead, just old and ill, in that waterfall scene. My apologies if I'm stretching the boundaries of canon too far ^_^.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Vincent tapped his claw's fingertips against his leg, wondering to himself what he was going to do with his remaining years. Sephiroth had now been taken care of, Lucrecia had disappeared, and everyone else who had once occupied the Highwind had settled down. Cid and Shera married happily... blissfully so. Cloud and Tifa had long since disappeared off together to god knows where. Reeve was back in Midgar, and Yuffie in Wutai... hell, everyone had gone to their respective homes. Everyone who had a home, anyway.  
  
So, here he was. He smiled slightly before pulling the pack of cigarettes he had 'borrowed' from Cid out of his jacket pocket, slotting it neatly between his lips while trying to find a lighter or matches. Biting down on the end between his teeth, a simple but obvious trick Cid had taught him to prevent the cigarette falling out while you were searching for a light. "That's bad for you," came a voice from the opposite end of the bridge, and Vincent froze completely, his hand slightly shaky as he found what he had been looking for and lit his cigarette, the smoke easing its way into his mouth before he had taken a full drag from it soothing his nerves somewhat, albeit not enough for this turn of events.  
  
"You haven't cared for a long time."  
  
"You'd be surprised," The voice snapped back, before quiet footsteps made their way up the hill. Shuffling slightly, perhaps a development to improve safety, she used to be so clumsy back then. "Long time..." She tilted her head, trying to get a proper look at him. Last time... last time she had kept her gaze firmly at his feet, not wanting to confirm changes to him, changes to her life. She had been in hiding for so long. And she was bitter, but sad, and things were very, very different indeed. "You never told me."  
  
"Would you have believed me?" She shrugged her shoulders slightly as he flicked his cigarette away into the water.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Lucrecia." That hurt. Saying her name. It had become like some bizarre form of aversion therapy; every time he spoke of her, he seemed to hurt even more inside. "Don't lie, it never suited you. You didn't believe me when I told you Hojo was no good for you."  
  
"That was different, Vincent, I was in love. If people had told you I was no good, would you have believed them?" Vincent tapped his leg again, sitting down on the bridge's edge. He couldn't lie about that, it was true. He would have denied anything negative said about her. But on the other hand, her comment was somewhat irrelevant. They weren't discussing Hojo.  
  
"Maybe it seems that way, but you loved your son too. You would have been a good mother, perhaps too good. You wouldn't have believed me saying anything bad about your son." Little bitter smirk on his face. "Least of all that your son had taken it upon himself to destroy the world." He lowered his eyelids, looking into the water flowing beneath him. "How do you feel about me now."  
  
"You had no choice-" Vincent tilted his head towards her, cut her off.  
  
"And does that matter to you?" His gaze was intense, dark. "I killed your son."  
  
"If anyone had to do it, I'm glad it was you." She continued walking up the bridge, getting to stand within a few feet of him. "You told me my child would have enjoyed life more if he was aborted than he would enjoy it in Hojo's hands. I hated you for saying that." She tucked a few silvery strands of hair back behind her ears, her skin a fairly sickly colour, thanks to Hojo's generous experimentation on her when she was with him. "I hated you for years, blamed you for everything. It was your fault Hojo had jealous rages. It was your fault I let Hojo do the things he did to me." Vincent appeared to have gone mute, his brows furrowed in concentration. It was frightening how statuesque he could go sometimes... unnaturally still, as though he didn't even notice the strands of hair tickling his cheeks, the wren that had moved to sit on a branch barely two feet above him. The bird fled with speed as she moved closer, almost physically feeling the tension running through Vincent's nerves.  
  
"I should have stopped you."  
  
"You never could have. I even appreciated some of it, for a while." Lucrecia pressed a hand to Vincent's shoulder, uncertain what sound to make, or what to say by way of apology. But then he looked up at her, and somehow, somehow words weren't necessary. Somehow that look he gave her... something inside her broke, and she took him in her arms, holding him as if she never wanted to let go. As though if she released him, that would signify the end of some strange dream, and he would disappear. "I wish..." a pause to gather her thoughts. "I wish I could have..." Another pause. God, how could she say anything? She had ruined this man's life and her own. But she had genuinely loved Hojo, and her son for the brief time she had known him. And she had been proud of the Jenova project. "I was a fool, Vincent." And it was true, she had been. She had given up true happiness for a random burst of feeling. She couldn't even place exactly why she had fallen for Hojo. Not that the scientist hadn't been attractive in his time, but... no, there really weren't words enough to explain or apologise enough for her actions. "Vincent, I'm sorry." That much was true, and it still hurt to say it, to verbally admit that it was her fault.   
  
"There should have been a way for me to help you."  
  
"Yes, there should have been. But there wasn't." She was firm about this, then her voice softened slightly. "If I hadn't... well... some things changed for the better because of Sephiroth. Shinra is no longer powerful. Your friends would never have met without me going ahead and having my son." She smiled widely, the abuse of her facial muscles which wanted to be left alone in their tension making her jaw ache. "That's me though, right the way through. Always trying to be optimistic, never really succeeding." Vincent shook his head.  
  
"You did succeed, some of the time. Maybe not for long." He shook his head a few times, before looking back at Lucrecia. "This is... surreal. How did you know I was here?"  
  
"I didn't."  
  
"Then why-" Lucrecia's lip curled slightly.  
  
"Vincent, the past few months I've been planning how to tell you straight to your face when I finally caught up with you that I hate you and blame you for everything that's gone wrong in the past few years." She paused. "Then I actually saw you. Snappy remarks aside... you've thrown me." Lucrecia took a deep breath, released it. "Everything would have been a lot easier if you were just some self-pitying, whining moron. But you've never been particularly stupid. Naive, occasionally, but never stupid." A slight smile. "Spoilsport."  
  
"It's also supposed to be harder to insult an old man than a young man."  
  
"That would never had made much of a difference. You've hardly changed."  
  
"You're not particularly different either, apart from the extra whiteness. But that's a trait we appear to share."  
  
"Yes, and I'm certain you find me as gorgeous as you did back then with all this added baggage."  
  
Vincent looked at the silver threading through her hair, the added plumpness of her figure and the creases showing around her eyes and lips, frown lines and smile lines from her constantly animated face. Even now, in her more serious mood, her face overplayed her feelings. Perhaps it was her dramatic eyebrows that accentuated her emotions. "I never did care much for faces that could launch ships. After all, where are the ships supposed to go?" Lucrecia laughed slightly, blushing.  
  
"Alright, maybe it was just vanity speaking. I don't think I'm anywhere near as attractive as I was back then." Vincent shook his head.  
  
"I was never interested in your fine bone structure or perfect skin because you never had them. You had character. You always looked alive, where I was emotionless. You were, and are, beautiful. And you'll stay that way."  
  
"Emotionless or not, you're very well preserved, Vincent." She smiled, biting her lip. "You've always been... pretty." Vincent looked almost affronted at that comment.  
  
"Pretty?"  
  
"Well, yes. You're not quite... handsome. You're certainly not rugged or manly." Vincent's expression was somewhere between anger and disbelief. "You can't deny the truth, you are pretty. You have a slender nose, big deep-set eyes, smooth lips, perfect complexion, thick soft hair - pretty." Vincent appeared to blush slightly, his gaze focused firmly on the water as he reached for Lucrecia's hand with his metal claw. Unsurprisingly, she drew back, nervous that the razor-sharp fingertips would injure her.  
  
"I won't hurt you. I've had enough practise to be certain of that." Slowly she stretched out her hand and placed it in his, allowing it to lace its thin-skinned and worn-looking fingers with his own.  
  
"How strange must this look?" She commented, a nervous giggle behind her words as he lifted her hand up closer to his face, seemingly inspecting the damage it had taken during her travels. "Vincent, must you?" He released her hand quickly, a frown on his face.  
  
"We've paid enough." She shook her head.  
  
"I can never pay enough for what I did, you know that."  
  
"Alright, maybe you yourself never paid enough... I can't say. But I feel..." A twitch caught the ex-Turk's lips. "I think saving the world could count as payment for the both of us." He took a slight breath. "Could you bear being part of an 'us' again?" Lucrecia's eyebrows drew into a puzzled frown.  
  
"If you'll let me."  
  
"I would always have let you," Vincent said, his smile open for once, unguarded. She felt that smile cut right through her cynicism, her fear that he could ever hate her. How could she have ignored him in her youth? Oh, she had loved Hojo. But Vincent... Vincent was the perfect substitute for love. He was loyal, and still beautiful in his own way, and he always tried to guard her from everything, even the truth. When she had stopped hiding and gone out into the world, seen the wreckage her son had brought on the world... she had hated him then for lying. But the fact he would have seen her die unaware of the pain she had forced on the planet, nevermind herself... he cared for her so much.  
  
"Anything's worth a try," She said after a moment's pause, before pulling her hand out of his grip and using it to stroke his cheek slightly. She understood the flinch perfectly, just as she understood the quiet sigh as he leant into her touch. When you've been hit more times than you've been touched out of friendship or love... instincts set in. "Where should we go?"  
  
"All the others went home. But Nibelheim's changed. For the worse, if that's possible." Lucrecia sighed and nodded, before lowering her hands, folding them in her lap.  
  
"Maybe people like us aren't supposed to have homes." Vincent shrugged before smiling.  
  
"I remember somewhere that felt like a home, even if it wasn't mine. It'll take a fair while to get to, but perhaps we'll be safe there for a time. Do you remember where Professor Gast fled to, with Ifalna?" Lucrecia nodded, vague memories of Hojo making snide remarks about the wise Professor's death forcing their way to the front of her mind. "We'll head there. It could take some time though." Vincent looked away for a moment. "I don't want you coming with me if you're uncertain. I know we've probably only got a few years of life left in us, but it's still a commitment you don't need to make. I won't force you to do anything."  
  
"I'll go." She stood up. "In the meantime, there's an inn not far from here. Business hasn't been too good lately, surprise surprise." Vincent's right eye twitched slightly at that before she let out a harsh laugh. "You'll have to excuse the humour. But really... it was that, or suicide." Vincent nodded slowly before standing up, looking somewhat puzzled when she took his hand in hers.  
  
"We're a bizarre pair."  
  
"Mm... monster and old woman. But I think people have seen worse recently." Vincent felt a proper smile twitching his mouth, but it was quite sore trying to get his face to match an expression he had not used in many months now, perhaps even many years. Lucrecia, seeing this, reached up her free hand and tugged at one edge of his mouth with her finger. "Come on, let it out. It's got to happen sometime." Vincent laughed at that, the sound more like a barking cough than an expression of amusement, but coming from the ex-Turk it would have sounded strange regardless. "See? Maybe it's a bit rusty, but you should still have a sense of humour in there somewhere." Vincent scratched the back of his neck with his free hand awkwardly.  
  
"I was beginning to wonder if Hojo had removed it." Lucrecia smirked and squeezed the hand she was holding before starting their walking pace, leaning into him slightly.  
  
"No more lies, okay?"  
  
"I'll think about it." 


End file.
